One of the first rules of customer service is to make it easy for your customers to do business with you... especially true for an Internet business. When you are not face to face with your customers the ability to accept and process credit cards through an online merchant account is a must. Your local bank can provide you with merchant accounts or you can go through a reseller who has access to many different banks and is able to set you up with an online merchant account. Unfortunately, many bankers know how to sell accounts but some of them don't actually understand how the credit card processing system works. A reseller can know far more about it because that is the business they are engaged in each day.

Internet Security and Online Privacy Are Crucial
A primary fear with online shoppers is that your website is not secure. Anyone who has an Internet merchant account should be concerned about this because the potential for credit card fraud online is just as great as in the offline world. That's why you need to make sure your website is secure and that your customers feel safe to shop in your online store. Let them know that your website is secure and how your system encrypts their information so nobody can steal it. Many websites do this by placing a secure site seal on their site pages.

Also utilize HTTPS in the address bar of your web pages whenever you need to collect confidential customer information. An online merchant account should have all of these features.  How many times in a retail environment have people handed their credit cards to a waitress and had her walk away with it for ten minutes at a time? These are the same people who think nothing of giving their credit card numbers by phones to strangers in catalog call centers, who often work from home. Still, in the online world, the fear is there and customers insist on online security and privacy.

If you sell a variety of items on your website, it's helpful to have a shopping cart system to complement your online merchant account. This is a temporary database that stores your customer's order until he or she is ready to pay for it with a credit or debit card. During checkout, the customer can check the order online and see how much shipping will cost, change quantities or remove items, then enter the credit card information and pay for the order. After that, the credit card data goes to the credit card processing company and once it's approved, the order gets emailed to you so you can fill it.

Call 888-760-1700 and we'll be happy to show all the ways we can help your business with its merchant account needs or you can apply online right now.